A House with Two Rooms - The Advocates for Human Rights

Women’s Human Rights
Women in Liberia experienced violence and other forms of discrimination as a result of their sex,
prior to, during, and after the conflict. Many women spoke to the TRC about the structural societal
constraints that impact their lives in Liberia. But women also play powerful social, economic, political,
and other roles in Liberian culture. Ensuring their safety, health, participation, and empowerment in
all aspects of Liberian society will be essential to developing the full potential of the Liberian nation
in the post-conflict era. The Government of Liberia has ratified the Convention on the Elimination
of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and the Protocol to the African Charter on Human
and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa, and is therefore bound to the obligations set
forth in those treaties. The Government of Liberia has signed, but not ratified, the Optional Protocol
to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.
Making a commitment to women’s human rights through international instruments is an important
component of protecting and empowering women in Liberia. Accordingly, The Advocates recommends
that the Government of Liberia:
• Ratify the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination against Women;
• Dedicate appropriate and sufficient resources to submit all due and overdue periodic reports
to the Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women;
• Dedicate appropriate and sufficient resources to submit a report describing the legislative and
other steps taken to achieve the rights set forth in the Protocol to the African Charter on
Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa. 379
The international treaties and declarations discussed above provide a guiding framework for the
promotion and protection of women’s human rights in Liberia. In addition, many of the issues pertinent
to women’s human rights intersect with other recommendations that are described elsewhere in this
report. The Advocates makes the following recommendations:
Women’s Human Rights: Ending Violence against Women
• The Government of Liberia should condemn violence against women as defined in the
Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women
in Africa and in the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination
against Women. Specifically, “violence against women means all acts perpetrated against
women which cause or could cause them physical, sexual, psychological, or economic harm,
including the threat to take such acts; or to undertake the imposition of arbitrary restrictions
on or deprivation of fundamental freedoms in private or public life in peace time and during
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Chapter Fourteen